Never
by Jack Mirembe
Summary: He had never asked for any of this. Funny how things work out. Character piece.


_I know this is a little out of my normal playground, but I've really started to fall in love with this series and its characters. Original characters anyways. Tezz is fine, but I still like and always have liked Stanford much better. So this is what we get from that. Enjoy and let me know if I've got this right._

_I don't own Battleforce 5 or any of the characters. Curse you Mattel! – J. Mirembe_

_

* * *

_

Not once did he ask to be a hero. Even if he had, he would have made sure to add in the fame and the fortune.

Now, he knows he's asked for that. The glitz and the glamour, the whole high-life package was what he used to wish for. Longer nights to spend at better parties, better DJ equipment, and a better car than his brother's, not to mention a better brother to begin with. Even no brother would be an improvement over his current one. That's what he's spent his shooting stars wishing on.

Not all his wishes were exclusively about his brother because that would have been a waste. What did he wish for? It was simple really. Just that his life could move a little faster and be just a little louder because it would all become _so_ boring. The same old tedious thing over and over again like a never ending basic back beat. The gentle thump of his heart marking out time passing him by drove him crazy. That's what he blames his music addiction on. The sound that is his personal salvation, the quick pickups and low bass beats always present to drown out the white noise of the dullness of everyday life.

It had just been a silly hobby at one point. A couple power chords here then a couple of beat up speakers there. The funny little noises he could create became his key to a world where he was in total control. It was a fact that nobody else could do what he did. It had been child's play, working with frequencies and discovering tonal intricacies he had no business knowing about. Never had the thought crossed his mind that his child's play could actually be much more difficult. Not once did he ask to become one of, no, _the_ master of sound.

He never wanted to be defined by some silly hobby. But he had. Tricked into leaving everything he knew behind for some dead-end town. That was quickly followed by being roped into a never-ending task that only seemed to become more dangerous and frustrating as time went on. Not only was he stuck, he had gotten stuck with five of the most incredibly common people he'd ever met. Who on earth would have ever wanted a life as thankless and ridiculous as that?

The simple answer would be not him. Never in a million years would he have asked for that exchange. But those were the tracks he had been given to work with. So he did what any good DJ would do. He cranked up the volume and went with the flow.

Even though the little dead-end town never got any bigger or any more lively, it surprisingly did become a home complete with a family. He never expected to have friends as average and simultaneously as incredible as the five people he had the honor to be trapped with. The unsatisfying, thankless, chaotic task he had never asked for gave him the purpose he had never thought of needing. He had never wanted to become a 'better person'. His entire life had been uprooted and transplanted backwards without so much as a second thought and it was better than he had ever thought possible.

Just like the car. Oh that car! It was everything he could have ever asked for as both a mixing station and a vehicle. Once upon a time, simply standing in DJ's booth had been like being a king. But there was no 'like' about the Reverb. There was nothing he couldn't do when he was strapped into that driver's seat. He was unstoppable and without match, except for amongst his friends. The team he had an increasingly hard time remembering not belonging to.

But he forgot the one rule. The golden rule that every DJ knows by heart: even the best parties come to an end.

He had never asked to have his car totaled. His car, his perfect instrument destroyed before his very eyes. Not once had he dreamed he would be forced to leave his team behind while blood still pumped through his body. But he had driven away to safety in his crippled car, deserting his friends to handle the enemy without him. Just like the helpless coward he thought he had left behind battlezones ago.

Had he wanted to give away his chip? No. But he had promised himself on a beach on an alien planet not too long ago that he would do _anything_ within his power to protect his team. Maybe he couldn't fight to protect them any longer, but he could give that power to someone else. No matter what the consequence, he would rather sacrifice his own status than desert his friends.

He had done his very best to sit back and behave like the prince he was supposed to be while the man that destroyed his car took his place. It had taken every ounce of self-control not to break like his poor car. Rendered inoperable in an attempt to take one last shot at accomplishing that purpose he had adopted what felt like years ago. The final song he had never thought he would willingly play.

He had never asked to be a hero just like he had never asked to be replaced.


End file.
